3/7/13 10:30 AM EDT

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said this morning he hopes the Senate can agree to vote on John Brennan's nomination to be director of CIA today.

"If no agreement can be reached,” he said, “we'll vote Saturday morning."

Reid, who has moved to end debate on the nomination, said the Senate needs to consider it by week’s end because “we have to be on the continuing resolution on Monday,” and “next week is the budget, and we have to do that before the break we take for Easter.”

1/24/13 9:57 PM EDT

Forget about Groundhog Day: For the last three weeks, it's been January 3 in the United States Senate.

While the rest of the world has moved on, one day at a time, the Senate's been stuck in a time warp. There is a reason: senators can change the rules for a Congress on Day One, and with Democrats trying to craft a plan on filibuster reform, they ended Jan. 3 - and each subsequent day the Senate was around - by recessing, rather than adjourning.

So here's what the Senate missed: Obama's inauguration on Jan. 20; Obama's public inauguration on Jan. 21; Beyonce lip-syncing the national anthem; the NFL playoffs; the college football championship game; the Golden Globes; the premieres of Bunheads and Girls; most of the Australian Open; and the Manti Te'o mess.

But no worry, now that the Senate voted Thursday night to approve the new rules, it can rest easy and put Jan. 3 behind it. Friday is a new day: Jan. 25.

7/20/12 1:19 PM EDT

A congressional hearing on the recently revealed lavish expenditures by the General Service Administration has been scheduled for Aug. 1, Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) announced in a statement Friday.

"Whether it’s through extravagant and senseless junkets, vacations and bonuses for its employees, or by turning some of the federal government’s most valuable properties into money-losers by letting them sit empty for years, this agency has demonstrated a profound and unbelievable tendency to treat taxpayer dollars like Monopoly money,” Mica, chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said in the statement.

“This agency is in need of some dramatic reforms, and the Committee will explore all these topics at this upcoming hearing.”

The hearing will also explore other potential reforms, including whether managing federal property should be handled by the private sector instead of GSA, according to Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management.

At a press conference Thursday, Mica announced that the GSA, which was still reeling from the scandal over its $822,000 conference in Las Vegas in 2010, held a performance reward ceremony costing taxpayers nearly $270,000. The event was held at the Crystal Gateway Marriott across from the Potomac in Washington in November of that year.

Expenses included $34,073.38 for the venue; $7,697.22 for hors d’oeuvres, beverages, miniature pastries for 200 attendees, a violinist and a guitarist for a “Commissioner’s Reception” at the Key Bridge Marriott; $20,578.24 for 4,000 drumsticks given to attendees; and $28,364.45 for 4,000 “time temperature picture frames” provided by Small Wonders.

The event in question will not be the focus of the hearing. It will serve as more of a gateway for Congress to look at the agency as a whole, Amanda Maddox, spokesperson for Denham told POLITICO.

“I think it’s just a building block effect,” Maddox said. “We’ll be looking at the overall purpose of the General Service Administration.”

Betsaida Alcantara, spokesperson for GSA, told POLITICO in an email that the agency has already been working on reform internally. She said lavish events were also canceled as of April 2012.

“Under the new leadership at GSA, this type of spending is not tolerated and strong oversight has been put in place … We continue with our rigorous top-to-bottom review of all agency operations and further reforms are forthcoming,” Alcantara emailed POLITICO.

1/11/11 9:03 PM EDT

The University of Arizona has canceled classes on Wednesday ahead of President Barack Obama's visit to the campus for an evening memorial service for the victims of last weekend's shooting massacre in Tucson, according to an e-mail to faculty.

The spring semester will now begin Thursday.

Classes for medical students in Tucson and Phoenix will continue as scheduled. University offices and student services will remain open Wednesday.

"This change is needed to accommodate the logistics and security surrounding the visit by President Obama as well as to enable the community to come together," the e-mail said.

1/5/11 8:16 AM EDT

It's the big day on the Hill: The 112th Congress is being sworn-in. Power is changing hands in the House. The Senate welcomes a class of 12 new Republicans and a lone freshman Democrat. We'll follow the formalities, and interesting informal moments, closely here on On Congress. Check in throughout the day for updates. To get started, hereÕs our version of the schedule of events.

House schedule:

12 p.m. The clerk calls the House to order
12:05 p.m. Quorum call
12:40 p.m. Nominations for speaker will be made
12:45 p.m. Members vote for speaker by alphabetical roll call? (Note: It's worth watching which Democrats break from the pack and do not back Pelosi)
2 p.m. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) presents Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to the House
2:25 p.m. Michigan Democrat John Dingell, the dean of the House, administers as Boehner takes the oath of office
2:40 p.m. The rules of the House for the 112th Congress will be brought to the floor under a privileged resolution
3:55 p.m. The House votes on the new rules
4:50 p.m. The House adjourns

Event of note:
9 a.m. Congressional Black Caucus swearing-in in the CVC. Both Pelosi and Hoyer will speak, between 10 a.m. and 10:15 a.m.

Senate schedule:

Noon: Senate convenes and senates are sworn in, followed by a live quorum call. (Note: Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) will get sworn in for a full term. Sens. Christopher Coons (D-Del.) and Manchin (D-W. Va.) were sworn-in in November.)

1:00 pm: Senators will have a second ceremony in the old Senate chamber before? moving on to their separate parties, press conferences, and/or receptions. The ceremony is optional, but many participate because it offers senators a chance to reenact the swearing-in for posterity, as cameras are not allowed on the floor for the actual swearing-in.

Per the Periodical Gallery, here's the order of the mock swearing in with Vice President Joe Biden in the old chamber:

1/8/09 7:11 AM EDT

Daschle hammered?Tom Daschle, the Senate's former top Dem and HHS secretary-designate, kicks off the confirmation season today. Will he get a free pass? Or will members pepper him with annoyingly specific questions, trying to smoke out details of his potentially controversial health care reform plan?

Reid, Coburn and the Lost Weekend. Will Harry Reid follow through on his threat to hold a session this weekend to clear out a passel of bills previously blocked by Tom "Dr. No" Coburn's procedural "holds"? Sunday sessions are deeply unpopular among members (particularly among those close enough to their states to head home on Friday). And Harry has a bad, bad cold.

Is Pelosi moving fast enough?Over the weekend, Nancy Pelosi's deputies -- seeking to dampen expectations the stimulus would be rammed through by the time Barack Obama takes office -- cautioned the package might not pass 'til February.

How long can she afford to wait -- and how far can she go to assuage the worries of pay-go Blue Dogs -- with the President-Elect warning today of double-digit unemployment and the potential for a lost economic generation? The speaker is likely to address some of those concerns at her weekly presser this morning.